Key Takeaways from the 2024 Nashville Healthcare Sessions Conference
1. Noteworthy Announcements
- Shore Capital Partners: Closed on nearly $2 billion across three funds, expanding its lower-middle-market healthcare portfolio.
- Oak HC/FT-backed Reveleer: Acquired Curation Health, a point-of-care clinical insights provider.
- Cohere Health: Partnered with MGC to launch a combined solution with a large regional payer in 2025.
- Maven Clinic: Raised a $125 million Series F round led by StepStone Group.
- Regal Healthcare Capital Partners: Thriveworks, a virtual behavioral health provider, acquired Synchronous Health, an AI-driven behavioral health patient engagement platform.
- Baylor Scott & White Health, Memorial Hermann Health System, Novant Health, and Providence: Formed Longitude Health, a for-profit holding company focused on AI and value-based care (VBC).
2. Deal Outlook
- Market Sentiment: Improved significantly since early 2024, expected to accelerate through the first half of 2025.
- Valuation Expectations: Cooler rhetoric but still challenging for sponsors to accept lower multiples and EBITDA growth projections.
- Hot Areas: Revenue cycle (specialty), cost containment (oncology), remote patient monitoring, payer tech, behavioral health (partial hospitalization programs, intensive outpatient programs, applied behavior analysis), site management organizations, and medspas.
3. Regulatory Dynamics
- California’s AB 3129: Vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom, seen as a critical victory for healthcare PE due to its bellwether status.
- Pennsylvania’s Premerger Notice Bill: Revised to be narrower in scope, signaling a potential cooling in the fever pitch of healthcare PE regulation.
- Federal Trade Commission (FTC): Emphasized objective review of pre- and postmerger competition dynamics, without special treatment for PE-involved transactions.
4. Industry Trends
- Stress Around Medicare Advantage (MA): VBC investors are shifting towards commercial pay, specialty, and multi-line-of-business models.
- IPO Considerations: With limited exit options for large platforms, healthcare PE firms are increasingly considering IPOs despite soft public valuations.
- AI Play: Oak HC/FT co-founder Andrew Adams is waiting for an AI play offering end-to-end workflow transformation, likely to emerge in provider workflow or revenue cycle.
This summary captures the key highlights and trends discussed during the 2024 Nashville Healthcare Sessions Conference, focusing on notable announcements, deal outlook, regulatory dynamics, and industry trends.